The body count rises with bloody, relentless precision in No One Lives, an old-fashioned slasher flick masquerading as a kidnapping thriller. When a family of Tennessee backwoods killers kidnaps a traveling couple, the power dynamic abruptly shifts when the man, known only as Driver (Luke Evans), turns out to be a serial killer on the run. Mayhem ensues, as one by one, Driver begins picking off the clan, deploying tools the maniacs from Friday the 13th and Halloween would appreciate: a woodchipper, the whirring fan of a car engine, and for one nasty beheading, a wooden clipboard. Director Ryûhei Kitamura (The Midnight Meat Train) is too talented for material this retro-junky, but he and screenwriter David Cohen keep the action coming hard and fast, while managing to suggest that Emma (Adelaide Clemens), the heiress Driver has been psychologically torturing for months, may be sweet on her captor, who's definitely crushing on her. No One Lives should satisfy horror fans, but with Fast & Furious 6 and two Hobbit sequels in his near future, the charismatic Evans must be praying that Driver quickly fades from view. Evans is Welsh so he probably didn't realize: Movie monsters never die.

Chuck Wilson

Theaters & Showtimes

Theaters showing No One Lives(Click on a showtime to purchase tickets)